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Toppled Trans AM
Location: Guthrie, Kentucky Date: July 15, 1990 Story On July 15th, 1990 in Guthrie, Kentucky, 24-year-old Jeff Welborne was working on his Trans AM as his wife, Jennifer, and their two young children came out. His older daughter, Jessica, was playing in the yard and he was counting out the sockets on his toolbox alongside her as she couldn't count right. Then he went back to his car, working underneath it. The jack collapsed and the car, which wasn't properly secured, rolled off the ramps and onto him. Jennifer heard the wheels move and saw Jeff, who was struggling trying to push the car off of him. Suddenly, he passed out and stopped moving. Jennifer tried to lift the car off of him, but it wouldn't budge. She saw that his eyes were rolled in the back of his head and his face and lips were turning blue. She rushed inside and tried to call for help, but she couldn't get the phone to work. She rushed back outside and yelled out to anyone for help Patrica Pierson, who lived across the street, heard Jennifer and rushed to help. "I come out of the house and went around the car and Jeff was underneath the car. We tried to lift it up but we couldn't and I felt bad because he was just lying there. He was just lifeless," Pierson stated. Jennifer and Pierson tried to lift the car off of Jeff, but nothing worked. Jennifer yelled out for help again. Tim Pulley, who lived next door, came out. After she told him what was going on, he, a volunteer search and rescue squad member, called Todd County Emergency Center. The volunteer rescue squad was immediately notified. Pulley came out and checked on Jeff. He found that he had a pulse, but he wasn't breathing and thought his neck was broken because he had no movement. "I thought he was dead and there was nothing I could do for him," Pulley said. Pulley tried to lift the car off of Jeff with Jennifer and Pierson, but with no luck. "Tim said, 'I can't get it up.' I said, 'We got to do something. I can't leave him here.' And Jessica kept calling for her daddy," Jennifer sadly stated. Pulley saw the jack and tried to use it to lift the car off of Jeff. He kept asking both Jennifer and Pierson if they could get them out, but they kept saying no. The jack got as far as it went and only lifted the car up two inches, which wasn't enough. Jennifer kept trying to pull Jeff out, but the tire was on him too tightly. Pulley, who was a heavily muscled man, had a idea. He reached up on the front bender and pulled it down, creating a teeter totter affect. With Pierson lifting the side Jeff was on, Pulley pulled down the other side and finally, after four minutes, Jennifer pulled Jeff free. "He wasn't breathing. His face was solid blue. Even his lips were blue. I couldn't find a pulse on his neck or his wrists. I just thought he was dead." Jennifer remembered. As everyone tried to tell Jeff to breathe, Pulley knelt down and stabilized his neck. Jennifer, who worked in a hospital, knew he would go into shock. Volunteer paramedic Scott Marshall, who responded from his home, arrived four minutes after Jeff was pulled out from underneath the car. He saw that he was unconscious and his respiration were practically zero as he was only have 3 to 4 per minute. "He never did regain consciousness and was just gurgling. Like gurgling in own blood," Pulley stated. As the nearest trauma center was more a hour away, a Life Flight helicopter was called in to transport Jeff. Since there was no room for Jennifer on board, Jeff's parents, James and Betty, drove her to 50 miles to Vanderbilt University Medical Center. After arrival, the doctors gave him a shot to paralyze him and did a CAT scan. He was moved to ICU and put on a respirator to help keep him alive. After being comatose for two days, he finally awakened. He signaled Jennifer to ask if their kids were okay and she replied that they were with her dad and had to worry about him now. Within a week, Jeff was released from the hospital. In the following months after the incident, he and Jennifer grew close to their neighbor and rescuer Tim Pulley. "I shook his hand when he got out of the hospital and told him what good deed he done. If there had been anybody else, I don't think they came out to help. But I glad he did," Jeff stated. "I think when people in the hurry and tried to work on something, they don't take the right safety precautions. These types of accidents will continue to happen. If you're going to work on your own vehicle, use your common sense, secure and scotch the vehicle to keep it from rolling back," Marshall advised. Category:1990 Category:Kentucky Category:Crush Injuries